Any suggestions on how to give up (or reduce) soda/pop consumption?

Feb 22, 2012 9:26 PM

Hi, my names Josh and I'm addicted to pop. I used to be pretty fat in high school but I switched to diet soda and started exercising and lost quite a bit of weight. Switching to diet got rid of the calories but my caffeine addiction is as strong as ever. Going without pop for an entire day leads to headaches. Does anyone have a suggestion of how to reduce stop drinking so much pop.

BTW I'm looking for more useful advice than that provided by Bob Newhart on Madtv

Top Answers

My personal preference is unsweetened, brewed with a mix of "regular" and flavored teabags to give a little variety. It's cheap, easy, has a modest amount of caffeine (depending on the tea you select, of course), and keeps you hydrated without being as bland as just plain water.

Also has the advantage of avoiding all the unnatural diet-soda chemicals.

Buy 2 liters of diet and caffeine-free diet. Start with a glass of 3/4 caffeinated and 1/4 caffeine free for the first week. Switch to half and half the next week, and then 3/4 caffeine free and 1/4 caffeinated the third week. By the fourth week you should be okay on the caffeine free soda. Then you can enjoy other drinks like ginger ale and root beer, as well as sparkling mineral water and fruit flavored seltzer without missing the caffeine. One of the ways i convinced myself to switch to caffeine free was to recognize that caffeine is not naturally in soda, it is a drug that is added to it. I figured why take a drug I do not need. I purchase only caffeine free soda and seltzer for home use, although when I am out in the world the caffeinated version is usually the only one that's available.

don't go cold turkey.
always have an option with you so you don't get into the "caffiene is the only drink available) position.
reduce your intake by limiting when (i went to only at work or when away from home for long periods of time)
then start reducing how much you can have (1 bottle a day instead of 2)
then start slowly adding water to your soda. (mix 1/4 water into it, then make it half water) until eventually you won't miss it.

i couldn't give up the flavor. (water taste bad-even bottled) so i started koolaid and crystal light (both are available in low cal and sugar free. and both have several flavors available)

My personal preference is unsweetened, brewed with a mix of "regular" and flavored teabags to give a little variety. It's cheap, easy, has a modest amount of caffeine (depending on the tea you select, of course), and keeps you hydrated without being as bland as just plain water.

Also has the advantage of avoiding all the unnatural diet-soda chemicals.

I got a SodaStream so I could make my own seltzers and sodas. When you decide what goes into it, you suddenly become very aware of and interested in using high-quality ingredients that buy you a lot of flavor with a minimum-to-zero penalty. I haven't tried the iSI system but I've heard good things about it too.

Another option, if you really need a strong hit of caffeine: the Crystal Light "Energy" drink sticks. Mixed with a 16-20 oz bottle as per the instructions, it tastes like kool-aid but with all punch of an energy soda. Mixed at 1/2 to 1/3 strength, it makes a nice flavored water (a.k.a. summer-camp kool-aid) without as much of the caffeine jitters.

Even better than Crystal Light though, is the Wal-Mart knock-off version. More flavors to choose from, at a significantly cheaper price.

I recently gave up soda. I first found a diet drink that wasn't too bad (this is key). Then I switched completely to just that. After about a week, I was so sick of Dr. Pepper 10 that I couldn't stand the thought of drinking another sip of it. I now drink primarily water. I didn't have any of the headaches that some people claim they get, but I did really want a Pepsi so bad I couldn't stand it for the first few days after I stopped completely.

My reasoning probably has something to do with why I was able to give it up so easily. I'm closing in on 30 and with the history of diabetes in my family, I didn't want any reason to worry more than I have to. I'm now in the process of changing my diet to include less red meats and more chicken, turkey and fish, and of course more vegetables. So far it's going well, but we'll see how well I'm sticking to it in a few weeks.

Buy 2 liters of diet and caffeine-free diet. Start with a glass of 3/4 caffeinated and 1/4 caffeine free for the first week. Switch to half and half the next week, and then 3/4 caffeine free and 1/4 caffeinated the third week. By the fourth week you should be okay on the caffeine free soda. Then you can enjoy other drinks like ginger ale and root beer, as well as sparkling mineral water and fruit flavored seltzer without missing the caffeine. One of the ways i convinced myself to switch to caffeine free was to recognize that caffeine is not naturally in soda, it is a drug that is added to it. I figured why take a drug I do not need. I purchase only caffeine free soda and seltzer for home use, although when I am out in the world the caffeinated version is usually the only one that's available.

I quit cold turkey about 4 years ago (I've probably had 2 sodas since then like at the movies and once when it was the only thing cold on a hot day). If I had tried to just reduce my soda intake, it wouldn't have worked at all. I couldn't get myself to drink water if I had soda in the house and paying for soda at a restaurant is one of the biggest rip-offs I regularly encounter.

In my experience, I find that drinking soda isn't really a problem (diet soda anyway) but drinking mostly water is what is good for you.

If its caffiene you want to give up, definitely don't go cold turkey. Limit when you drink it to only before noon or something like that so you can get out of an evening habit, then slowly drop the amount and replace with water or even sparkling water.

If its just the soda you want to get rid of but keep the caffiene, I switched to just coffee and sometimes tea. Diet soda is a once in a while thing now. I still try to limit when I drink coffee to before noon or one and then water the rest of the day.
Good luck either way! They're both hard things to kick!

I'd strongly suggest staying away from diet sodas. The artificial sweeteners are actually worse for you than regular sugar. They convince your brain that you're getting a carb load, and then when it doesn't materialize you get carb cravings.

I cut back to a single 16oz diet coke per day for about a year, and then went completely to unsweetened tea. All the caffeine with none of the calories.

I switch between diet coke and caffeine-free diet coke depending on whether I want an caffeine. I personally don't believe all the claims about artificial sweeteners, so don't worry about that (haven't for the 20 years since I switched to diet)

@wootmango22 beat me to one of my first suggestions; but I add lemon & lime too. Tasty stuff. AND it hydrates you a hell of a lot better than sodey-pop.

You should keep in mind too how bad for you diet soda (and regular) is too.. Here's the stuff that makes it "diet":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspartame
There's quite a few positions on it, but then general consensus is: it's bad :)

Juice, tea, water, etc. Find a few things you like and go with it.

I've actually found some awesome "healthy" sodapop recently that I've switched too. Instead of processed sugar/aspartame it's made from pure, unprocessed cane sugar and Stevia. It only has 50calories per can too.
The downside is, it can get kinda spendy.. I usually get it on sale though for about $3/8-pack.

If you are trying to give up on caffeine then you can cold turkey it and try and pull through, though I suggest keeping some Excedrin on hand, as it contains caffeine and should help ease the headache from withdrawl. If you reduce the amount you take if you absolutely have to take them, I think it would be easier to take say, 1 pill then half a pill etc. as needed to slowly adjust.

Cold turkey is the way to go. The first few days will SUCK but your body will adjust. Just replace every can of soda with a bottle of water. It'll get a little easier every day, and before you know it, you wont miss it.

it has to be a concious choice. when you start to drink something if its a soda.... don't drink it. teas are better but not perfect youre still getting caffiene and possibly a lot of sugar if its sweet tea. make yourself drink cold water. i'm lucky to work at a pepsi plant 20 ounce aquafinas for a quarter baby !

Figure out how many pops you drink a day. Assign an average monetary value to each pop. (example if you only buy pop on sale .25, or if you buy it from a vending machine that sells them for $.50.) Figure the average number of drinks a day you have. Every day only carry around your daily amount of pop change in you pocket. At the end of the day drop the extra change in a jar.
Do not quit cold turkey. After a few months count the money in the jar. (I bought 2 computers kits with my jar money.)

@drchops: Really I'm ok with moderate caffeine. I'd just prefer to find a natural drink that doesn't have many calories that gets rid of any food tastes (which water doesn't). It would be nice to stop ingesting so many artificial thingamabobs.

@portezbie: FYI, you can make cold brew ice tea out of regular Celestial Seasonings herbal tea bags too - it just takes a bit longer. A neighbor brews up big pitchers of it overnight in her fridge all summer long. She mixes and matches different kinds, sometimes adding black or green tea to a batch. It comes out pretty darn tasty! (I keep thinking I should brew some for myself, but she seems to invite me over for a tall glass of her brew every time I get a hankering.)

@caffeine_dude: That's an awesome idea that would work for many daily habits. That "pocket change" money could really add up for someone with an addiction to overpriced vending machine snacks, or fancy Starbucks drinks, or ciggies, or ...

One of the major key things when giving up or reducing something is commitment. Stick with it!
As for advice, I'd suggest slowly reducing how much pop you drink. Try other alternatives like tea, water, or something that contains small amounts of caffeine.
Good luck and I wish you the best :)

Diet drinks are still like drinking sugared drinks regularly, so I'd avoid that. According to google and other sources, plus I kind of see it myself too.

Caffeine is like smoking cigarettes, so your body craves for it if it's not getting any and you get withdrawal symptoms (most likely headaches). My suggestion to that is to slow down on how much soda you take each day (so if you do like three cans a day... do two a day for one week then one a day for one week).

Drinking water DOES reduce the headache and you should be drinking at least 2-3 liters of water a day depending on what you do. Since you're working out.. I'd stick with like 3 liters. If it's that bad you could take some tylenol or something to relieve the headache.

Also, remove everything in your fridge that has soda and caffeine as you're more than likely to be tempted to drink soda more often.

@ginawoot: To help not 'cheat the jar' (wife and kids do not have as much self control as I do), I bought a jug and punched a small hole in the lid with a small screw driver then I carefully tapped a quarter into the hole making it bigger (just big enough for the quarter) then I super glued the lid on the jar. I even offered $20 for the person who guessed the amount closest. We had almost $700.

Woot.com is operated by Woot Services LLC.
Products on Woot.com are sold by Woot, Inc., other than items on Wine.Woot which are sold by the seller specified on the product detail page.
Product narratives are for entertainment purposes and frequently employ
literary point of view;
the narratives do not express Woot's editorial opinion.
Aside from literary abuse, your use of this site also subjects you to Woot's
terms of use
and
privacy policy.
Woot may designate a user comment as a Quality Post, but that doesn't mean we agree with or guarantee anything said or linked to in that post.

Not a farewell, just a forced redirect.

It's true, Local.Woot is no longer, but please don't despair.

Never-ending savings are still to be found on Deals.Woot each and every day, so come on in. Don't think of it as a time for tears. Think of it as a way to bring us all closer together under one roof.

Sorry

This is only for people who have bought woots

We restrict voting to users who have purchased something from one of the other Woot stores. It's not just because we want your money (which we do) - it's the best way to be sure all the votes are coming from real people and not spam-bots or phony accounts. The best way we can think of, anyway. For now.

You can always get voting rights by buying something from one of Woot's other sites:

Purchases through Deals.Woot don't count, because in that case you're not buying anything from us. And we don't have your account information for those purchases.

If you think you've bought something from Woot before and still can't vote, make sure you're logged in with the same account you used to buy from us.

Geez, why so negative?

You have to vote up more before you can vote down.

Don't get us wrong. Negativity has its place. And downvotes are just as essential as upvotes when it comes to making Deals.Woot a useful place to find deals.

But when your votes lean so heavily toward the dark side, we have to wonder. Go vote up a few things. Accentuate the positive for a little while. It'll do you some good, and it'll do the site some good, too. Then you can get back to dealing out the smackdowns, OK?

Too late, we all heard you!

Hmm... you're wanting to take your vote back?

Well, that's a bit tricky. See, we do a lot of stuff with your vote, using it to work out the popularity of what you voted for, compare that to all the other things voted on, tally up our leaderboard, work out your reputation. Someday we'll do a little cartoon showing just how hard your vote is working.

Anyway, taking votes back messes all that up, so we give you five minutes, in case you just mis-clicked. After that we've got to say no take-backs. Luckily, votes are free, so feel free to throw them around left and right wherever you see fit.